1st Golden Carrot Award: Lyra Leigh-Nedbor
Congratulations to Lyra for being the first recipient of our Golden Carrot Award! Golden Carrot Awards are given to those within our community who have gone above and beyond in working towards a robust local food system in the Gallatin Valley and Montana. Lyra exemplifies this and then some!
Lyra first started working at the Gallatin Valley Food Bank (GVFB) in April of 2013. At that time, KidsPack only served 12 schools in the county and the Summer Lunch Program served roughly 10,000 meals. Lyra took over the Summer Lunch Program in 2015 and expanded the program to over 22,000 meals served. But Lyra didn’t stop there! She continued to grow the program and by 2019, distributed close to 30,000 meals to kids. Additionally, Lyra grew KidsPack to providing 400-500 bags per week and in 2019, added the KidsPantry program to provide nutritional resources to middle and high school students.
Then the pandemic hit; but that didn’t stop Lyra from meeting the needs of her community. With her guidance, she helped support and train Bozeman, Belgrade, Three Forks, and West Yellowstone on the workings of the Summer Food Service Program, an emergency response to school closure for food offerings, so they could provide meals to kids while they weren’t able to be in school, providing more meals than ever before.
Throughout her years at the GVFB, Lyra has prioritized local foods, including veggies sourced through Root Cellar, local lentils, local bread, and local meat in the Summer Lunch Program. Through KidsPack and the KidsPantry program, Lyra sourced local food in the weekly bags, including Kracklin Kamut, Lentil Crunchers, honey sticks, oats, beef jerky, and trail mix. In 2021, she even began biweekly distribution of local produce as well!
In 2022, Lyra stepped away from the GVFB to celebrate becoming an aunt and pursue other interests. She loved her time at the food bank, stating it was a rewarding and inspiring place to work. She’d like to give a huge shoutout to the volunteers and community for supporting the food bank and its programs that made her work possible. Throughout her time at GVFB, Lyra learned so much about all the different ways you can nourish people both through food and community.
Lyra, we at Gallatin Valley Farm to School would love to say THANK YOU for all that you have done for Gallatin Valley and beyond. We’re so grateful to have you in our community and the work you’ve done has impacted thousands. You’re truly the golden carrot of the bunch!
Gallatin Valley Farm to School is awarding Golden Carrots to celebrate people and organizations in our community who are leading the way in efforts to connect kids, families, and schools to local food. You can nominate someone to be honored with a Golden Carrot here.